Following on from yesterday’s pig-related streets we can go, in a sense, from the ridiculous to the sublime: from hoggish to holy, starting with Worship Street in Shoreditch. The reason for starting with that street? I’m not the queen of tenuous connections for nothing: Worship Street was once called Hog Lane.
And guess what? The name has nothing to do with religion, worship, or prayers. It takes its name from an Elizabethan merchant tailor, John Worsop, who owned over six acres of land in the area. By happy coincidence, however, there was once a foundry there used by John Wesley as a place of worship. Shakespeare is reputed to have once lived here, possibly when it was still Hog Lane.
Then there’s Bishopsgate, which 
is named after a bishop: according to John Stow, the original London gate was named for Bishop Erkenwald, who became Bishop of London in 675. The site of the former gate is marked by a stone bishop’s mitre and, for the trivia lovers among you, the street is one of the longest in the City of London.
In no particular order or geographical proximity or otherwise, we move to to Pope’s Head Alley, where Lloyd’s of London was first established. The alley takes its name from a 15th-century tavern that was destroyed in the Great Fire and then rebuilt. One of the earliest mentions of the tavern occurs in Edward IV’s reign: a wager took place as to whether a goldsmith from Alicant was as talented as one from England.
From there we can go to to Crutched Friars (an arbitrary choice as there are various friar-related streets), which takes its name from a holy order, the Crossed Friars. This was an Augustinian order that began in Bologna in 1169 and was established in London by Ralph Hosiar and William Sabernes in 1298. The name derived from the friars’ habits, which were blue with, usually, a red cross on the back.
And on to Dean Street, which I can quite happily count in the ‘occupations’ category as well as this religious category. It is generally agreed (and who am I to argue with historians and scholars?) to have been named as a compliment to Bishop Henry Compton, Dean of the Chapel Royal.
The good bishop was a great philanthropist and gave lie to the notion that charity begins at home. He died a poor man, having spent his money aiding those who were refugees from persecution in foreign countries, helping poor children and rebuilding hospitals and churches.
Two famous names associated with the street are Marx and Mozart.
And of course, London street names being what they are, we have to include a little smut with the holy-sounding Cardinal Cap Alley, which in fact takes its name from a brothel, possibly named for Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester. If that seems a bit incongruous, it’s not: the brothels of Bankside, which flourished for centuries, were leased from the Bishops of Winchester.
There are too many streets with churches, cathedrals, temples, and saints in their names for me to go into them here, but we could take a(nother) quick look at the area around St Paul’s Cathedral, where there is a group of streets with religious names. It is argued by some that, before the Reformation (the anti-Catholic movement originating with Martin Luther), there was a regular procession of the clergy around the cathedral.
This procession involved reciting the Lord’s Prayer in Paternoster Row, the Hail Mary in Ave Maria Lane, the Credo in Creed Lane, and the Amen in Amen Corner.
Incidentally, there is a Dean’s Court nearby, as well as Sermon Lane, Friar Street and – but this may be too much of a stretch, even for me – a Godliman Street.
I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s reverential post and now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to dash off to see what I can learn about Godliman Street.
thestreetnames 
10 responses to “Worship Street: tenuous connections to bets, pigs and brothels”
Did they really go all the way to Amen Corner back then? Rewind. They mean the Amen Corner near St. Paul’s, not the one in Tooting! Slapped legs for me again…
Best wishes, Pete.
There’s one in Tooting? And of course Amen Corner goes even further afield if you want to count pop music…
That group was named after a club night at a venue in Cardiff. Amen Corner certainly gets around as a name!
Thanks for your blog I am enjoying reading about the different streets, researching my mother’s ancestors who lived in the East End of London (Jewish). I was wondering if you have any information about a place called Eagle Lane in the Parish of St George the Martyr Reg District of Holborn. I have tried researching it but couldn’t find it…, it looked like many people lived at the same address. The address appears on an 1871 census. I am fascinated by the streets they all lived in, and try to find them on British History site or others, but to no avail. Your blog is so fascinating and really gives me a sense of the East End of London, esp as I am from Australia. I did visit London in 2008, only had a day to go to the East End, but so many people, and so many new buildings meant I didn’t really get to explore this amazing areas as much as I would have liked. I have bought many books online about the area as it fascinates me, it’s history from way back to esp the 50s and 60s. Anyway just love your blog. cheers
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2015 15:02:38 +0000 To: heneker52@outlook.com
Thank you for your very kind words. The streets of London are indeed a fascinating subject. I have no information about Eagle Lane but I’ll do a bit of digging. Good luck with all your research.
[…] many famous resident of, and visitors to, the area. Among these was Charles Wesley, brother of John Wesley, who founded the modern Methodist church; there is a monument erected there to mark the site of his […]
[…] Paternoster Square takes its name from Paternoster Row near St Paul’s Cathedral. It is argued by some that, before the Reformation, there was a regular procession of the clergy around the cathedral. This procession involved reciting the Lord’s Prayer in Paternoster Row, the Hail Mary in Ave Maria Lane, the Credo in Creed Lane, and the Amen in Amen Corner.( There are quite a few streets in London with religious (or religious-sounding) names, as you can see here.) […]
[…] Worship Street’s name is nothing to do with religion (though it does have religious connections): it is probably a corruption of ‘Worsop’ from an Elizabeth merchant tailor, John Worsop, who owned over six acres of land in the area. And Speedy Place nothing to do with swiftness or haste. There was once a tavern, called the Golden Boot, the licence of which was held by the Speedy family. An earlier landlord, and member of the Speedy family, used to meet with the ringleaders of the 1780 Gordon Riots. […]
[…] Worship Street was once known as Hog Lane and may have taken its name from John Worshop, a merchant tailor, who owned over six acres of land in the area. Shakespeare is reputed to have once lived here, possibly when it was still Hog Lane. […]
[…] while ago, this blog featured a religious-themed post, in which I made the brash statement that, “There are too many streets with churches, cathedrals, […]